The United Kingdom and Colombia unite to transform education in Bogotá

From the 5th to the 26th of August CoSchool (Colombia) and Humanutopia (United Kingdom) united to bring transformative experiences to young people in Colombia. CoSchool counts itself as one of the foremost organizations developing leadership skills and character competencies (honesty, working as a team and empathy). Humanutopia has more than fifteen years experience with 200,000 young people in the United Kingdom and specialises in this area. The two companies know each other since 2010 and this year provided the opportunity for their first alliance.
CoSchool is a Colombian organisation created by two teachers: one Colombian (Carlos Echeverry) and the other English (Henry May) who felt frustrated with the education system in Colombia. Out of this frustration, they created different programs to fill this gap. These focus on developing social emotional skills in young people and generating leaders and agents of change in different communities. The team has worked in public and private schools in Bogotá (such as AngloColombiano and CNG), as well as innovative projects in Chocó, Cali and Manizales.
CampCo, one of the CoSchool’s programs, included more than 250 students this summer. In total the organisation has reached more than 5000 students in only two years.
Humanutopia is a British organisation created fifteen years ago to provide schools with new, innovative programs. As with CoSchool, these were created when two physical education teachers (Graham and Carlo) initiated proposals to create change in the new generation of young people and to fill the gaps in the education system of their country.
They create courses to develop leadership in students as well as inspiring courses for adults. Just like CoSchool, they offer programs that vary from between one day to one year. They have worked with more than 200,000 young people in the United Kingdom.

What did they achieve?

Humanutopia’s visit to Colombia impacted the lives of more than 800 Colombian students and 100 teachers, through transformative one-day workshops with five different schools. They shared experiences and methodologies to improve the focus of CoSchool. A long-term relationship between the two organisations was founded, and there were opportunities to collaborate with Avianca.